Hamilton puts McLaren on top heading to Bahrain
Hamilton posted the fastest time on the final day of winter testing in Barcelona
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By Darren Estwick. |  |
Monday, 01, Mar 2010 01:32
By Adam Leveridge.
Lewis Hamilton and McLaren ended pre-season testing on a high on Sunday, by topping the times with a 1m20.472 and racking up 134 laps of the Catalunya circuit.
The 2008 world champion turned his attention to qualifying simulations in the morning, along with a number of his rivals, giving a good comparison of the field in terms of their pace over a single lap.
Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber ended the day in second place, just 0.024 seconds off Hamilton's quickest time, after taking over the controls of the RB6 from Sebastien Vettel who managed the fifth fastest lap time overall with a 1m20.667.
With a quick time in the bag, Hamilton then switched to race simulations in the afternoon where he showed consistency and speed throughout the run, which comprised of two faultless pit-stops.
His Ferrari foe Felipe Massa was on an identical programme, starting the day on qualifying runs and then brimming his F10 with fuel to do cover race-distances.
The Brazilian could not quite match Hamilton and ended up in third place on the timesheets, just 0.067 seconds down and, although they suffered technical issues during their long runs, the Maranello-based outfit and Massa are delighted with the progress they have made over the past four weeks of testing.
"We did what we had planned to do at the beginning of this month of testing: we're very happy with the work done," said Massa.
"We wanted a competitive car and I think we've achieved our goal.
"We've reached a good level of reliability, which is very important."
However, despite the general belief in the paddock that Ferrari have the quickest package heading to Bahrain Massa is less than convinced and played down any suggestions that the Italian team will be the ones to beat at the start of the season.
"I think that we're part of the group, who did well in these tests, which is something you could see on this last day of testing, when many simulated qualifying," said Massa.
"I don't agree at all with those who say we're the strongest: I think we're there, together with some other teams.
"I can't say that we're going to Bahrain to win, but I know that we'll fight for it."
Adrian Sutil demonstrated that Force India have made strides forward with their VJM03, beating Vettel to fourth place on the times with a low-fuel blast around the Barcelona circuit in the afternoon.
Michael Schumacher ended his first testing programme with Mercedes GP as the sixth fastest man of the day, with just 0.273 seconds between himself and Hamilton.
Like Hamilton and Massa, the seven-time world champion began Sunday with short stints, before trying out a race run in the afternoon.
"It is always difficult to read too much into testing but knowing our programme, it is fair to say that the times did not always reflect the true picture," said Schumacher.
"We have worked through many set-up and development evaluations this week and gained valuable information to study before Bahrain.
"We are heading the first race with a good feeling and we know that we will have our upgrades there.
"But most of all we know that our prospects for even the first races are looking very reasonable now."
Lotus and Virgin Racing languished down at the bottom end of the timesheets as winter testing came to a close, with Heikki Kovalainen finishing in 11th with a 1m25.251 and Lucas di Grassi posting a time in the 1m26s.